Wecyclers enables low-income communities to make money from waste piling up in their streets. By deploying a fleet of cargo bicycles to collect and recycle unmanaged waste in Nigeria’s city of Lagos, Wecyclers lets families exchange garbage for consumer goods via an SMS-based point system.
Wecyclers is a response to local waste issues since the Nigerian government only collects 40 percent of its cities garbage with only 13 percent of recyclable materials salvaged from landfills. Wecyclers is empowering the local community and already has more than 5,000 households signed up.
The Bios Urn is a fully biodegradable urn designed to convert you into a tree after life. Mainly composed of two parts, the urn contains a seed which will grow to in the name of your loved one.
Created by startup CleanRobotics, Trashbot uses cameras, sensors, metal detectors and motors to sort discarded items into the right locations, cutting out human error or laziness.
TerraCycle is an innovative recycling company, founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a student at Princeton University. It has become a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle waste. It reuses, upcycles, and recycles waste instead of incinerating or landfilling it. This moves waste from a linear system to a circular one, allowing it to keep cycling in the economy.
TerraCycle offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help people collect and recycle their hard-to-recycle waste. A person chooses the programs they would like to join; start collecting in their home, school, or office; download free shipping labels; and send their waste to be recycled. They can even earn rewards for your school or favorite non-profit.
TerraCycle also works with many municipalities to provide a public program for recycling cigarette butts and other difficult-to-recycle waste streams. It also allows for custom-built programs through which communities can work together to create a network of collection locations.
Additionally, TerraCycle partners with manufacturing facilities around the world to help recycle hard-to-recycle waste at the facility level. Their programs range from helping to recycle large volumes of packaging scrap to personal safety equipment. They also provide zero waste consulting and closed-loop R&D support.